Imus Gets Suspended for Being a Bigot: MSNBC Finally Implementing the 4,003 Strikes and You’re Out Rule

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Don Imus - The Racist Radio Cowboy Imus finally gets a two-week suspension for thinking being a bigot is funny. In trying to do damage control after calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team a group of “nappy headed hos”, Imus gets irritated by a reporters question and refers to blacks as “you people”.

[Imus on understanding how he hurt black women ] “I do understand that. How do you assume that I don’t understand that? Of course I understand that! It’s like the old country song, ‘God may forgive you, but I won’t. Jesus loves you but I don’t.’ So I can’t get any place with you people, but I can get some place with Jesus.”

In all fairness Imus was totally pissed that someone dared to ask him whether or not he completely grasped the impact of his words on young, black women. I mean, come on. Because seriously, when you think of the plight of young, black women isn’t Imus the first thing that pops into your head?

Don Imus has made a career out of making fun of women, gays, minorities and handicapped people. He’s an bigoted shock jock, that’s what he does. Personally, I’d rather listen to midtown rush hour than Imus because I can’t stand him, but let’s not pretend like his racist comment was completely out of the blue.

Imus admitted in a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace years ago that he and his staff frequently refer to black people as “monkeys” and that he hired his staff to make racist jokes.

Here’s a transcript from NPR from 2001 where Brooke Gladstone describes Imus as someone who “revels in sex and potty jokes and routinely offends, blacks, gays and women”. Imus also first denies, then jokes about his seemingly flippant use of the “n” word.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Earlier this summer one of Imus’s second bananas, Sid Rosenberg, made a joke in shockingly bad taste about tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. Imus fired him. And then promptly re-hired him. He explained that back in the bad old days of his own drug and alcohol abuse, people gave him about 50 second chances. Imus is all about forgiveness. But he admitted in an interview with Mike Wallace a few years back that he hired his staff to make racist jokes.

MIKE WALLACE: You told Tom ANDERSON, the producer, in your car coming home that Bernard McGuirk is there to do “nigger” jokes.

DON IMUS: Well I’ve n– I never use that word.

MIKE WALLACE: Tom?

TOM ANDERSON: I’m right here.

DON IMUS: Did I use that word?

TOM ANDERSON: I recall you using that word.

DON IMUS: Oh, okay, well then I used that word, but I mean– of course that was an off the record conversation– [LAUGHTER]